Media Report

Introduction

In this report I will be evaluating my pre-production, production, textual analysis and questionnaire. This will include the font size and colour, images and layout, language and conventions. In this task I have created 2 magazine covers, a double page spread and a textual analysis.

Questionnaire

Everyone who had answered my questionnaire are all 15-18 years old, this means that my target audience is more likely to be aimed at young adults around the age of 15-18. This is age is mostly students so the price of the magazine will have to match this as well because most students are under class and don't have much money so the magazine won't cost a lot as well. I will have to make my magazine cover and double spread suitable to people/students around that age and what they are interested in. 54% of the people who answered my questionnaire were male and 46% were female, this made the magazine appeal more to male than female because I would have a more accurate view on what to do for my magazine if it is aimed at males. If I publish the magazine and start to release it in shops, I will need to release other issues in certain time periods like monthly, weekly or yearly. 50% of the people who answered the questionnaire read a magazine once a month, 40% read it once a year and 10% don't read magazines. Using this information I know the best time to release the magazine is once a month because more people will read the magazine than any other time. If I release it to many times or not enough times then I could lose sales and less people will read the magazine. Also price of the magazine is also important because if it is too expensive then people won't buy it but if it is too cheap then the company won't make any profit from it. 55% would pay £0-£3 for a magazine, 45% would spend £4-£10. Using his information I would use around £2-£5 for each magazine, this is because if it is any cheaper than the business will lose profit, but if it cost more than a lot less people would buy the magazine.

Textual Analysis

For both of the pieces I created I established the theme of film magazine and Sci-fi, inspired by the different science fiction film magazines like TRON, or Dr Who. I used these techniques on my own work, using neon colours like bright blue.

Images/Layout

I decided to place the image in the middle to make it the main image, and attract the audiences' attention. I was inspired by the Empire magazines because all of their main images were placed centre of the cover and had cover lines on both sides, with the masthead at the top and the main headline at the bottom. For my first image, I used an upper mid shot of my artist pointing at the camera, showing the upper half of his body. This shows his confidence in a science fiction film. The connotations of his pose is saying he is ready, as well as wearing smart suit and jacket showing that he is willing to make an effort to look good or the film he is in is telling the audience what his characters is going to be like by just looking at his appearance. I used a bright picture of the girl for my 2nd photo, this is because it was meant to be a futuristic cover and the pale skin with very dark hair made the girl look more futuristic, as well as her having very bright blue eyes. This helped with the futuristic genre because it gives that feeling that it is from the future. For my double page spread I used a darker shade on the picture to give it a look as if it is behind the scenes and not actually part of the show, just behind it. I used close up on my second image for the cover, because it matches with the empire magazine and gives the face more detail and appreciation.

Font/Language

My first magazine cover had the same font as the empire masthead, this is because it is big and it shows the importance, making it easy for the audience to read it. The title was called Day of the Doctor, which is the film of Dr Who, I used this because the audience would recognise the title and fans of Dr Who would read it. This could also will be a backfire for me as well because people who don't like Dr Who will not read this because they don't want to read something they don't like. I used cover lines on the side to show the different articles within the magazine and show the audience what else is in the magazine, if they saw something on the magazine cover that they are interested on then they will want to read it to see what it is. I used fonts that relate to the article and genre of the magazine, this is because it flows well with the genre and it wouldn't look like it is clashing with the theme of the magazine. It has connotations of science fiction genre, for example for the main title looks futuristic instead of using a normal font and making it look like present day font. I used different fonts in my pre-production were called ‘Matt Smith Doctor Who’, this is because it is a font that was made for ‘Doctor Who’ and it made sense to use that for my pre-production. I also used other fonts called ‘FUTURE EARTH’ which is a font that gives the impression of Sci-Fi and futuristic and it made the ‘TRON’ magazine feel like it was made from the future and it had a very strong connection with technology.

Conventions

Instead of having a border around the double page spread, I decided to completely fill it with my original picture, and put text over it. This is because I didn't want any blank spaces on my double page spread, I was inspired by an Empire magazine double page spread. On my first cover, I used the colour red and orange in the background, this has the connotation of danger and anger, this could also mean that the magazine could be having adventures with Dr Who, or something interesting is going to happen. But for my second image I used a blue effect which has the connotations of sad and futuristic. This could show the audience that something has happened to affect the character, and it is set in the future with neon blue colours that look futuristic. I added a bar code on the near the bottom of the cover to show it is a magazine cover, and most magazine covers have the barcode on the front, but sometimes the back because they can't put it on the spine. All of my covers relate to the Empire magazine, this is because I am doing film magazines, and Empire magazines are the best magazine company to use as an inspiration for my magazines. I used a lot of their conventions in my work because they can get a lot of audiences' attention with their magazines and I want to do the same. The pre-production has different conventions in, that link with many different things to try and make the audience think when they buy the magazine or when they look at the front cover.

Productions

My productions was a double page spread with the directors from the Dr Who magazine. I got inspired with the general layout of the Empire magazines, and used it in my work, using the rule of thirds with the main image in the middle and cover lines on either side of it. I used a different colour scheme from both of my magazine covers and double page spread with different schemes for each one, although my 2nd cover is similar to my double page spread. I used a large, high quality image because needed only the upper half of it and to do that I had to zoom in on the picture. If my image wasn't large, high quality then the image would be blurring and pixelated, this will ruin my main image for the magazine cover. To draw the reader’s attention, I used capital letters for the title to catch their eyes when they are looking through the magazines, I also used a different colour that contrast with the main colour of the double page spread to also catch the reader’s attention and get more interested in the article. The title was "behind the TARDIS doors", I used this because it is a pun, because not a lot of people in the show knows what is behind the TARDIS doors except form the main characters and the audience, and they think it is just an ordinary police box. But no one has been behind and it will show the creators of Dr Who and what happens behind the scenes. In conclusion, the production is supposed to link with the pre-production, because it uses the magazine cover to help back up the double cover page. Overall I think that the production is successful to ‘Doctor Who’ fans but at the same time it could upset some fans of ‘Doctor Who’ as well, this is because if they wanted to hear about the TV show more or wanted to see pictures of the show they might be disappointed. The cover page only showed and talked about the director, but if really big fans of the show and they enjoy the directors work, they might be pleased with the double cover page and buy the magazine and want to read more.